Working with the Initiative

Where things stand

There are no cooperation agreements at present, and no institution appears on this site as a partner. No institution will be named as a partner without its written consent.

Planned Pilot agreements with holding institutions, to link catalogue records and to trial the Citation Fidelity Standard.

Shared concerns

The institutions we address play different roles, but they share a number of concerns:

• accurate attribution of texts to their sources, and protection against misquotation;
• collections, and the ways they are used, remaining under the control of their holding institutions;
• reliance on recognised international standards such as IIIF;
• building expertise in the countries concerned;
• translating the principles of AI governance into practice;
• transparency about where funding comes from.

To serve these concerns together, we are developing the Citation Fidelity Standard with three building blocks:

Planned None of the three building blocks has been published yet.

Libraries and manuscript centres

For institutions that hold manuscripts and maintain their catalogues.

We offer

Linking of manuscript records across catalogues, with a link back to the source at the holding institution; transfer of methods; and a pilot project for the Citation Fidelity Standard.

We expect

Metadata under a clear licence, and scholarly feedback on what we publish.

First step

A first conversation, followed by a written pilot agreement. Email: info@arabian-service.com

We do not

Copy digitised manuscripts to our own servers, or appropriate collections or present them as our own.

Digitised images stay on the servers of the holding institution and are accessed through IIIF alone. Private and family collections are included only with the written consent of their owners, who may withdraw it.

Governments and public bodies

For public bodies with responsibility for language, heritage and AI.

We offer

A reference architecture for sovereign operation, in which the choice of model and hosting follows the needs of the institution, and dialogue on the Charter.

We expect

A framework that respects the Initiative's neutrality and gives no party the right to direct its work.

First step

A technical conversation, treated confidentially. Email: info@arabian-service.com

We do not

Take sides between states.

Conversations with public bodies are confidential: without the consent of the other side, we publish neither their content nor the fact that they took place.

Research

For researchers and research groups in philology, digital humanities and Arabic natural language processing.

We offer

Open test sets and joint publications.

We expect

Proper citation when our material is used, and corrections sent back to us.

First step

An email to the research address: info@arabian-service.com

We do not

Grant anyone exclusive rights to data.

The test sets have not yet been published. No joint work is published until philologists have reviewed it, because AI does not replace scholarship.

Funders

For organisations that fund work on manuscript heritage and AI.

We offer

Projects carried out with local partners in the country concerned, and indicators that can be verified.

We expect

Funding earmarked for a defined purpose, with no influence on results.

First step

A short concept note. Email: info@arabian-service.com

We do not

Accept funds above the cap per funder, or funds tied to particular results.

Principles for every collaboration

• We name an institution or a person as a partner only with written consent, together with one line on the partner's role, and we show no institution's logo without an agreement.
• We remain neutral between states, and between schools of law and denominations, and we do not present measurement results as a ranking of countries.
• No collaboration gives any party authority over the Initiative's work, its results or the text of the Charter.
• We issue no fatwas, give no religious rulings or theological assessments, and make no judgements on the authenticity of hadith, in joint projects as in our own work.
• We never mirror digitised manuscripts, and collections remain with their holding institutions.
• In conflict regions we work only through established specialist bodies and local archives, and we undertake no rescue operations of our own.
• No paid consultancy or training is offered in the Initiative's name, and no commercial product is presented as one of its programmes.